Jewel Ann - Idle Bloom

I hate that he can’t even look at me. “I’ll be back.”

Kai is the lucky recipient of my drop-dead look as I grab my purse. “I’ll be in the car, Alex.” Kai smirks and my hands clench, fighting back the urge to wipe that stupid grin off his face.

“What’s going on?” Alex asks getting into the car.

“My best friend is an ass and my boyfriend is a jerk.”

“Yikes. What now?”

“I can’t figure out what the deal is with Kai. Why did he tell me Kate left him? Why is he acting like such a dick to Oliver, and why does he look at me like he owns me?”

Alex cringes.

“What?”

She chews on her lip.

“What?”

With a quick sideways glance, she sighs. “He told Sean that he has feelings for you. That’s why he broke up with Kate.”

“Feelings? What’s that supposed to mean?” I cross my arms over my chest.

“You know what that means.”

“No, I don’t. Kai just got tired of Kate and he’s bored so he thinks he wants me, but he doesn’t. He just wants someone, anyone.”

Alex lifts her shoulders. “Maybe, but Sean made it sound like Kai came to some life-changing decision that you’re the one and only one for him.”

There is no response to that. I stare out the window, releasing a deep breath.

“What did Oliver do?”

I roll my eyes. “Nothing, everything … I don’t know. He’s hiding something, but I have no clue what it is.”

“Hiding what? Like a wife or something.”

I laugh. “No, more like something from his past that haunts him. I’ve met his family. They wouldn’t welcome me with open arms if it were some deal breaker.”

“Why don’t you ask him?”

“I can’t. Whatever it is feels like the line between Jekyll and Hyde.”

“You’re afraid of how he might react if you ask him?”

“I’m afraid of everything—his reaction, mine, losing him, losing us. He has this door down the hall from his bedroom and it’s locked with a dead bolt … a freaking dead bolt. Who has a deadbolted door to a bedroom or closet or whatever the hell it is?”

“Did you ask him about it?”

I shake my head. “He’s caught me more than once staring at it, but I’ve never asked. That’s when I see a slight glimpse of Hyde in his eyes. Well that, and given my own secret-filled past, I have trouble prying into his. I think he’ll tell me, hopefully sooner than later.”

Alex pulls into a parking spot. “Sean and I dated a year before he told me about his uncle.”

A sad smile pulls at my lips. Sean and I give each other shit all the time, but I genuinely like him and his past breaks my heart. His uncle sexually abused him for over ten years before anyone found out. I’ve met his parents and they are the best. I can’t even imagine what it must have done to them when they found out.

“I’ll give him time. As much as I’m dying to know, it has to be on his own time.”

We get out of the car.

“Maybe he has a weird fetish like a collection of porcelain-faced dolls, or teddy bears. Maybe he’s into some kinky shit and he’s hiding his whips and canes behind that door. I bet he has one of those sex swings suspended from the ceiling. Seriously, he did say he wanted to spank you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” I laugh and at the same time the spanking threat lingers like a neon light in the back of my mind.

Oliver

I hate her. I fucking hate her. It feels like a one-night stand with HIV as the parting gift. She’s the poison in my veins. A poison that will infect everyone I ever touch.

“Hey, there’s some drinks in the fridge and maybe a few cereal bars on the counter. The women should be back soon with some grub. Alex just texted me and said they’re on their way back, but Viv wanted to stop for her doughnuts.”

“Thanks, Sean, I’m good right now.” I sit in the lounge chair next to him on the deck not giving Kai so much as a glance.

“So Alex said you graduated from Harvard Law.”

I nod. “Yes, I did.”

“But you’re working with your brother right now?” Sean tips back his can of Red Bull.

“I am. How about you?”

“I’m getting my MBA just like Viv.”

“What are your plans when you’re done?”

“Wait for Viv.” He laughs. “You do realize she plans on conquering the world? I can think of worse coattails to ride.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, she’s definitely driven.”

“How would you know? You’ve known her for what … two seconds?” Kai decides to open his piehole and add his two worthless cents.

Sean looks at Kai and shakes his head with a warning glare. I’m missing something, but right now I couldn’t care less.

“My relationship with her is none of your damn business.”

Kai stands and smirks. “Whatever. She gives good head, doesn’t she?”

I see red, hear my thundering pulse, and feel nothing but Kai’s face against my fist.

Sean helps him up as Kai uses his shirt to catch the blood flowing from his nose.

“Thanks for the invite, but I think I’ll head back to Cambridge. You’ll bring Vivian home on Sunday?”

“Fuck, I think you broke my nose!”

Sean looks at me and nods once before tending to his asshole of a friend. I grab my bag from upstairs and pull out of the drive without a second thought about it. Vivian’s lips wrapped around Kai’s dick is an image I’m not going to forget all too soon—not without a little help from Jack Daniels.

Vivian

Oliver’s car is gone. Maybe he took the guys for some lunch. I shouldn’t have insisted on stopping for doughnuts, but we left early and didn’t stop on the way.

“Did Sean say they were going somewhere?”

Alex hands me two bags of groceries from the back. “No, but they’re guys, you know, forgetful and unpredictable.”

“True.”

We carry the bags into the kitchen.

“What the heck?” Alex says.

Kai sits at the kitchen table, holding an icepack to his bloodied nose, and Sean leans against the counter.

“What happened? Where’s Oliver?”

Kai glares at me behind his icepack. “Real nice, Viv. I’m sitting here with a busted-up face and all you can say is ‘Where’s Oliver?’”

I set the bags down on the table. “No, I also asked what happened.”

“Kai stuck his foot in his mouth and got a bloody nose.” Sean smirks.

I look from Sean to Kai. “What happened?”

“Hey, babe, maybe we should take a walk and leave these two to talk.”

“Then hurry up and help me put away these groceries,” Alex replies.

“Kai?” I step closer looking down at him.

“He hit me.”

“Why?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. He just lost it.”

Sean clears his throat.

Kai glances at him and sighs. “I may have said something.”

“What?”

He continues to look over at Sean, then finally back at me. “I said you give good … head.”

Smack!

“FUCK! My nose!”

Kai’s icepack crashes to the floor and I stare at his blood on my palm.

“Yeah, let’s go, Sean.” Alex grabs his hand, leaving the rest of the groceries on the counter.

I toss a roll of paper towels at Kai. Eyes watering and hands shaking, he struggles to tear off a wad.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Me?” he questions in disbelief.

“Where is he?”

Kai eases down to pick up his icepack with one hand while holding the paper towels to his nose with the other. “He went home.”

My heart shatters. Oliver left thinking … God knows what, and I can’t get to him. I huff toward the stairs.

“Viv, wait!” Kai follows me. “You don’t understand.”

“You’re right, I don’t.” I shake my head. “Friends don’t do this.” I start up the stairs.

“I love you, Viv.”

I stop.

“I know the timing seems wrong, but I love you. I think I always have and I’ve just been too blind to see it … to see you.”

Tears flood my eyes as I turn around. “Why? Why now? Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say those words? God … I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember.” I sniffle and wipe my tears. “It’s too late, Kai.” I shake my head.

“No, Viv, it’s never too late. You know we belong together. I know you feel it in your heart.”

I can’t even see Kai, all I see is Oliver. All I want is Oliver. All I need is Oliver.

I love Oliver.

“I’m not your toy, not anymore. You only want me when you think you can’t have me. But I don’t love you that way, not anymore.”

“He doesn’t deserve—”

“Don’t! Don’t you dare say that to me. You don’t deserve me, Kai. You broke me and I let you.”

“Viv, you promised—”

“I don’t care!” Tears of anger replace my tears of sadness and they’re like dripping acid. “I don’t care that I promised never to blame you. I do! I blame you for my fucking lot in life. You were drunk off your ass that night and if those other campers wouldn’t have been watching I might have died. Do you get that?”

Kai looks at me with a world of remorse in his eyes, but it’s too late.

“Do you, Kai? Do. You. Get. That?”

He nods once and swallows with renewed tears in his eyes.

“I can’t do this anymore. At some point this…” I wave my hand in the air “…us, what we had, became toxic and we’ve been too blind and stubborn to see it. But it’s over … we’re over. Stop calling me, stop coming over, just … stay away from me.” I turn and walk the rest of the way up the stairs.